Myths and Legacy
Tale of Takanuva: The Plan
Written by Jeff Douglas
What is the Makuta’s shall return to him.
The phrase, once spoken with confidence and optimism, now followed Takanuva like a curse. His own words haunted him as he made his way through the underground lair formerly of Makuta. His mind’s voice shifted between that and Jaller’s words.
Takua! it kept repeating. What are you doing down here alone?
“You know what I’m doing,” Takanuva grumbled at Jaller’s voice for the fourth or fifth time.
At least, so he assured himself. In truth, he was starting to doubt he’d made the right decision, and he was questioning why he’d made it in the first place.
So why had he done it?
Well, it had been a combination of a few factors. First, he had decided that too many of his adventures of late had seen him set off reluctantly. This was something he wanted to change, and in as a grand demonstration of his bravery as possible. That and he’d been listening to Jaller’s speeches on duty too much.
Secondly, he had a new responsibility as a Toa to live up to. If he couldn’t handle a simple mission like this, then what worth was there in being the destined seventh Toa?
Finally, if Takanuva was being totally honest with himself, there was certainly an element of bravado in his decision. With Makuta defeated and the first step well underway in reawakening Mata Nui, how couldn’t he overestimate his chances?
Yes, all of this factored together to explain why Takanuva was making his way to Mangaia’s northernmost networks, making his way to a very specific cave in Po-Wahi. One that had very nearly been the tomb of Onua, Pohatu, and Whenua, and which had come very close to seeing the defeat of the other four Nuva as well. Indeed, the rationale that had led him here seemed to fall away as the gravity of that thought sunk in.
What are you doing down here alone?
“I don’t know,” Takanuva muttered through a gritted expression. “But I wish you’d—”
A clatter behind him made him freeze in his tracks.
When he was still, he heard nothing. No movement behind him. No tread of footsteps.
He took another step forward — there it was, a whirring noise. Takanuva turned to look, but a blast to his side exploded a stone pillar. Rubble shot everywhere, slamming into Takanuva and sending him flying.
When the Toa’s vision cleared, he saw a shape moving in his direction - a creature with a rectangular, blocky body and its eyes perched in a menacing red and yellow head.
“Great,” thought Takanuva. “Third day on the job and this is who I pick a fight with?”
The Toa leaped to his feet, and the Rahi blasted the ground where he’d stood. Takanuva somersaulted, jumped, and ducked, the blasts getting closer each time. One, he could swear, had singed his armor.
He dove behind a stone pillar barely wide enough to hide him. Without missing a beat, the Rahi unleashed a devastating blast to the pillar, shattering it to pieces and revealing a terrified Toa Takanuva.
The eyes of the Rahi met his, and he knew in that instant he had lost. After such a great first day as a Toa, and now to fail like this? On a mission nobody had known he’d undertaken? What a way to go.
But… nothing happened. The monstrous Rahi remained motionless. His heart sank when he saw a second such Rahi treading out of the shadows. For a moment, the Toa thought the first was waiting on the second as backup, but the second one too stopped in its tracks.
What are they waiting for? Takanuva wondered. Could they…
His mind raced, even as he remained completely still. If he made the wrong move now—
Wrong move! Takanuva inhaled. Of course! When I stood still and was on the floor, they did nothing! But now…
Now he was cursed to remain a statue for the rest of his life.
What a fine Chronicle this would make, he thought grimly. If I could only write it.
One minutes passed. Then two. Takanuva’s eyes darted around the chamber looking for something, anything that could serve as a distraction. There were no bamboo disks or Volo Lutu Launchers. No Madu Fruit to bounce off the wall. No flute to summon a Kewa. There wasn’t even a kohlii ball he could flip and hurl at them.
No, he had none of that. All of his Matoran tools had been left behind.
So… what do I have now?
The answer came so quickly Takanuva almost facepalmed — and would have if he hadn’t caught himself in time. His new powers opened up so many possibilities to him. And while they weren’t anything he could easily use to attack — yet — perhaps there was another possibility.
His eyes turned to the far wall. Squinting and holding his breath, he called on his powers of Light. First a pinprick appeared, before expanding into a small spotlight.
The spotlight descended along the wall and danced along the ground, dancing in circles around the Rahi who reacted at once, unleashing energy blasts and racing after it. Takanuva made the spotlight dance in circles, and the Rahi attempted to pounce on it a few times, only for the light to get away. Takanuva chuckled at the sight, before directing the pair into one of the far chambers and out of sight.
Effective guards they would be, Takanuva thought. But they’ve never met a Toa of Light.
“Well done.”
Takanuva nearly jumped out of his armor. He whirled, trying to find the source of the voice.
“Mana Ko are the pride of the Makuta and the fear of all others,” it came again, seeming to echo from all around. The voice hesitated, then added, “I’m up here, by the way.”
Takanuva looked up. Sitting perched on a tall rafter and leaning against the largest of the room’s pillars was a dark, heavily-armored figure.
“Let me guess,” said Takanuva. “Another of Makuta’s minions. I should have known.”
The figure laughed mockingly as he leaped to another rafter. “I suppose you’ve probably faced plenty of them by now. What could be next? Send in the spider hordes? Turn the Exo-Toa against you? No, I’m something else altogether.”
“What are you?”
The figure leaped down, landing right in front of Takanuva. The figure was a biped with two arms and two wing-like protrusions extending out of its back, lined with teeth, blades, and claws. One of its arms held a sword spitting twin jets of flame while the other held a long staff — one Takanuva instantly recognized as Makuta’s former Staff of Darkness.
But easily the most remarkable feature was the giant snake-like head that sat perched in the middle of its torso. The rest of the serpentine body extended out the back and swung like a heavily-armored tail. The dome seemed to lift slightly, revealing a giant kraata head.
“I am Kraata-Kal,” it spoke. The dome lowered, and now the head on the armor suit spoke. “I am here to investigate Makuta’s defeat.”
All at once, Takanuva’s mind flew back weeks. It hadn’t been so long ago that six Bohrok-Kal had sought to investigate the defeat of the Bahrag. They had fought tooth and nail to track down and free their queens, to unleash havoc once again.
“Makuta is otherwise indisposed,” Takanuva growled. “You should turn back.”
Kraata-Kal studied the Toa thoughtfully.
“So it seems,” he said finally. “The object of my recent studies. Makuta vanquished by the Toa of Light.”
“The Toa and Matoran here have faced everything Makuta has thrown at us,” Takanuva asserted. “Now he has fallen. But if more of his minions or anyone else seeks to prevent Mata Nui’s awakening, they shall meet the same fate.”
“Let’s hope their kohlii skills are up to snuff.”
The Toa scowled, restraining himself from saying something he’d regret.
Kraata-Kal waved a hand dismissively. “But rest easy. I am not here to fight you. I am on your side. Just as well that you defeated Makuta. It saved me the trouble. And while I know my words are cheap, the knowledge I carry is not. No… it is not.”
Takanuva crossed his arms. A pity Toa school doesn’t teach when to take bait and when not to, he thought. In fact, it’s a pity there’s no Toa school at all. The other six could have used some.
Kraata-Kal turned and stalked further along the chamber, the giant tail-like serpentine sweeping back and forth as the armored legs pulled it along. “I’ve learned much since coming here. Many gaps in my own knowledge have been filled in,” he continued. “Combined with what I knew already, I could make your mind spin.”
“Very well,” Takanuva allowed. “Tell me something that will make my head spin.”
“I’ll give you three. Three truths that each alone would turn your world on its head if you knew. You stand on the cusp of a new world filled with vast knowledge. I am here to open the door.”
“Try me.”
“If you wish,” Kraata-Kal scoffed, “Then follow me. If you dare.”
✴ ✴ ✴
It was difficult to tell what direction they were going, and after weaving around enough corners, Takanuva gave up trying. There wasn’t much to distinguish one stretch of tunnel from another. Realistically, it was a short trip, but one made far longer by the awkwardness of the traveling companions with each other.
So it was in silence that they finally arrived at a place Takanuva was very well acquainted with. It was a place he had traveled through only days ago, and one he had seen once in a telepathic link. It was the great chamber beneath Kini-Nui.
Sunlight streamed in from far above, where the ruined remains of the Suva-Kaita where the Rahkshi had smashed it. On both sides, glowing energy streamed out of two stone hemispheres fixed in the ground. There they had been left, for there had been no apparent reason to remove them.
“The Makoki Stones,” Kraata-Kal breathed.
He looked at Takanuva. “How closely have you looked at the Makoki Stone? There is something you must try very hard to see — something I would not have seen if I hadn’t been tasked with guarding it once long ago. It is Matoran script, seemingly random consonants and vowels strung together like a single long word. These are not random, however, like you or your Turaga might assume. They are all names. The real name of Makuta… and his brothers and sisters.
Takanuva’s face was blank as his eyes took in the scratches on the stone. With some clever illumination, the carvings cast shadows within themselves and the ancient Matoran script was made clearer. Much of it had been eroded or worn with time and was illegible, and even what the Toa could make out was in a dialect he was unfamiliar with. But what little he could decipher seemed to support Kraata-Kal’s words. It was possible Kraata-Kal was lying and had forged these himself to deceive Takanuva. But the weathering on the stones appeared real.
At length, Takanuva frowned and lowered the stone. “I might have had a harder time believing you…” he said, “if the Turaga had not already said that we are not the first Toa. Now you say this was not the only Makuta. Is that our world, then? Dozens of lands and realms where teams of Toa fight against their Makuta to awaken their Mata Nui?”
“There is only one Mata Nui,” Kraata-Kal said. “And only you and yours are supposed to awaken him. This was the greatest of the Makuta, who leads all the rest, whose hands struck Mata Nui down. But… he was not the first leader of the Makuta. There was one before him: Miserix who took the form of a great dragon and was killed when our Makuta took power. Some hold out hope that he still lives, but he would certainly have made himself known by now if he did.”
“These other lands,” Takanuva said, “They are all in the world beneath our feet?”
“Correct.”
The Toa shook his head. “The Turaga know so much… Vakama has seen so much in the Sacred Fire. How could they not have known there were other Makuta?”
Kraata-Kal smiled humorlessly. After letting the information sink in for a moment, the enigmatic figure stirred. “Come. You have only tasted the first fruit of knowledge. There are still two more.”
✴ ✴ ✴
“Consider,” Kraata-Kal said over his shoulder, “That it is a convenient reality that Bohrok comes in sets of six. Much as Bohrok Va and Bohrok-Kal. One for each village, it seems.”
“It is the number of completion,” Takanuva nodded. “One chosen by Mata Nui himself to enumerate the elements.”
“Aha, more deceptions from the Turaga,” his companion scoffed. “And a Metru-Nui-centeric mindset. More elements exist, you know, from more villages. The powers of the Bohrok-Kal are Matoran elements too.”
“Right. And how many elements are there, then?”
“Over a dozen Matoran elements. And yet, that pales in comparison… to the Rahkshi.”
The tunnel opened up into a vast, towering chamber filled with green, sickly pillars — six rows by six columns. The familiar, serpentlike silhouettes of Rahkshi could be observed, dormant within each.
“Behold: these are the thirty-six Rahkshi types you did not face,” Kraata-Kal gestured. “And the reason why so many Kraata types exist. Did you not notice the multitude of colors and shapes and not wonder about their significance?”
“Not really. Why would one assume that Kanohi of each color hold different powers?” Takanuva shrugged. “Or would you tell me there are more than thirteen Kanohi powers?”
Kraata-Kal started to respond, but then thought better of it. Takanuva looked into its eyes and laughed. “Why am I not surprised.”
“The world you know, Toa,” Kraata-Kal said softly, “Is such a small sample size of reality. The existence you have known is such a clean, sanitized version of the world below. All your life, you have only known bright colors, a plentiful island, and reliable, innocent Matoran. You have not had to struggle to survive like those in the world beneath our feet. You have lived in an island paradise blessed by Mata Nui. The culture shock that awaits you will be unlike anything you’ve known. Only now is your veil of lies about to be pulled back.”
“Then tell me this,” Takanuva said, gesturing to the Rahkshi. “Why does he need so many? What did he plan to use them for?”
“Makuta was prepared to unleash them upon your land to fulfill his ends.”
“And what were his ends?”
“The creation of the Toa of Light.”
“Hah. Funny.”
“I’m serious.”
“Sure. Because what else would Makuta want besides his own destruction?”
“Didn’t you learn?” Kraata-Kal said, advancing. “He is destruction. The Makuta holds every power of every Rahkshi you’ve ever seen, including the ones before you now. And yet you win without a hitch.”
Takanuva didn’t think about what happened next. A wave of solid light shot out of his arms and chest like a crescent, shattering the pillars and causing them to crumble under their own weight. Without their support, the ceiling buckled and collapsed, filling the air with debris and dirt.
Takanuva and Kraata-Kal escaped into the safety of one of the outer tunnels, but while Takanuva looked on with shock and amazement, wondering how he’d done it and how he could do it again, Kraata-Kal looked on with disgust.
“Those thirty-six powers must be pretty nice,” Takanuva snorted, “Not much good against Light though.”
“Is that how you’re going to face every threat? Not every enemy is a suit of armor.”
“Says the suit of armor.”
“Enough,” Kraata-Kal said stiffly. “There is one more thing you must see. And I have saved the worst… for last.”
✴ ✴ ✴
“This tour of Makuta’s house of horrors has been fun,” Takanuva said briskly. “But you have just shown me that he has a lot more minions than we’d faced. Which doesn’t do him much good if he’s not around to direct them.”
“These minions still have a role to play. A directive in this cosmic scheme. They have their purpose.”
“And what is your purpose?”
“I wasn’t given any by my maker.”
“The Great Beings have ordained everything in Mata Nui’s world. You have a purpose. A real one.”
“I do not.”
“You—”
“We’ve arrived,” Kraata-Kal said, cutting him off.
They chamber they had now come to was completely empty. It was entirely unremarkable, in fact, except for one important detail — the walls were lined with carvings.
They appeared ancient, as ancient as those on the walls of Kini-Nui. It seemed impossible, in fact, that they had been written a millennium ago. Yet they detailed ten centuries of Matoran history, from a time even Takua could scarcely remember up to a few weeks ago. They detailed the first Rahi wave which Takua had faced himself, the theft of the Ko-Koro Element of Melting, the poisoning of Ta-Wahi’s water, and the infection of the Po-Matoran. They spoke of the abduction of the Turaga and the Toa stones, the adventures of Takua, and the summoning of the Toa. They spoke of the sending of new Rahi, the Bohrok, the Bohrok-Kal, and the Rahkshi. And they spoke of Takua’s transformation into the Toa of Light.
“What does this mean?” the Toa asked. “I… I don’t understand.”
“Yes you do.”
“Even if these are true… Makuta could not have arranged for everything to happen. How could he have arranged for all of it to set in motion?”
“I can prove it very easily, Toa. You’ve seen the emotions Makuta can visit upon another. A little rage here, a little fear there… and a good-natured Turaga finds himself sending an innocent Matoran into exile.”
Takanuva didn’t even notice his jaw drop.
Kraata-Kal continued. “Plant the name of this exile in the minds of Turaga that they seek him out and urge him to undertake a daring mission. Unleash an onslaught of Rahi to kidnap the Turaga. Force the Matoran to seek out the Turaga, Toa stones, and Vuata Maca Crystals. Ordain that the rite of summoning be enacted at Kini-Nui… and set in motion the beginning of the end.”
“You’re saying that my missions — the summoning of the Toa… Makuta arranged that?”
“Not merely arranged,” Kraata-Kal’s face darkened. “Wanted. Makuta bore the Toa out of nothing. He bore you out of nothing. There is a Plan you have not seen. Even I have only caught glimpses, like through a keyhole.”
Takanuva frowned, remembering his short-lived merger with Makuta. At that time, he had peered briefly into the mind of his nemesis, and although he had been distracted with the opening of the Great Barrier, what little he had seen — the vivid, awful images of madness and insanity — were so nightmarish that even now Takanuva’s mind fought against revisiting them.
“And let me guess,” he said through gritted teeth. His fists were balled. “You knew Makuta’s plan was to be defeated… for the Matoran to return to their home. His plan was for Mata Nui to be awakened and for himself to be condemned for his crimes. All of this was his intent?”
“Well…” Kraata-Kal said. “I couldn’t say. But you and the other Toa will have played into his hands irrespective of your victories. What has passed is his plan. Of that we can be sure.”
Takanuva lashed out, a blinding array of light temporarily blinding Kraata-Kal, and sending him reeling.
“Or,” Takanuva snapped, “Maybe you’re just trying to trick me.”
“A kohlii match? Really?” Kraata-Kal jeered, picking himself up off the ground.
“And what does it mean?”
“I told you, I don’t know. I only ever got brief snatches of his Plan.”
Takanuva scoffed. “Of course.”
“I give you true, free knowledge and you mock it?” Kraata-Kal snarled, shadows swirling around the Staff of Darkness. “How do you still not trust me?”
“There’s a Matoran saying,” Takanuva said, light dancing around his. “‘Beware suits of armor bearing gifts.’”
A torrent of water swept out of the caverns, knocking Takanuva off his feet, and a blaze of fire encircled him. Above it all, Kraata-Kal loomed, his dark armor glimmering.
“We are have a shared enemy,” he growled. “One who created us both. We could have worked together to oppose him, but you have acted childishly.”
“And you only ever told me about him,” Takanuva replied. “You were wrong earlier. Another person’s secrets are given cheaply. But you never gave me one of value to you.”
Takanuva leaped into the air and performed a midair flip over the Kraata-Kal’s head. The creature whirled to face him, but Takanuva illuminated himself like a blinding display of light. The creature reeled, firing darkness from the staff blindly. The shadows struck home, allowing the Toa to be viewable, but Takanuva fired a ray of solidified light. Kraata-Kal was knocked off his feet.
“You want to know something about me?” Kraata-Kal shouted. His voice lowered. “Then I’ll tell you this. I will not reveal the range of my powers to anyone. But what I have used is a fraction of it. This is your last warning.”
“Everything comes to light,” Takanuva raised his hand, pointing at the Kraata-Kal.
“Have it your way.”
Raising himself to his full height, the earth trembled and the caverns shook. And as the wrathful mutant creature was fully prepared, he happened to notice a small, glowing red dot on his armor. A second red dot was coming toward them from deep in the cavern.
He looked up. They were coming from the Toa’s finger.
The realization sunk in like a thunderbolt. “Oh…”
A cacophony resounded from deep within the caverns, and the roar of treads whirled. Two towering Mana Ko exploded into the room, hot in pursuit of the red dots. Takanuva and the Kraata-Kal stood absolutely still, but the Mata Ko spotted the glow on the latter’s armor and lunged for him, firing energy blasts.
Kraata-Kal bolted for a tunnel, the Rahi hot on his tail. If he could make it far enough, he could escape to the lands below, but as he ran he struggled to remember his way out. Rounding one bend, then another, he found himself on the edge of a chasm.
The Mana Ko appeared in the tunnel entrance and Kraata-Kal turned to face them. Takanuva appeared behind them, bending the light to keep any spotlight off himself and off Kraata-Kal, though the mutant creature knew it could return in a heartbeat.
“Why did you really come to me, Kraata-Kal?” the Toa asked. “Did you seek a friend or a tool?”
Kraata-Kal stared hard at the Rahi that now faced him.
At length he relaxed, and laughter bubbled within him.
“I will tell you a fourth secret, Toa,” he said. “All is not light and dark in the land below. Only shades below. You have known an island paradise here, and every villager is your friend. Not so below. You are not ready for those lands. I could have led you… but my offer’s expired.”
With that, Kraata-Kal stepped out of the darkness and into the light. Without hesitation, the Mana Ko fired disintegration blasts, and while he was able to jump above them, they struck the ground beneath his feet. To his horror, he felt the earth crumbling and the cliff disintegrating.
And with a shout of anger, he fell into the chasm below.
A speck of laser light led the Mana Ko safely away into the tunnels, and now Takanuva too stepped into the light. Staring over the abyss, he thought he could see a glow of light down below, perhaps emanating from the world of the old city. But he could not be sure.
It seemed unlikely the Kraata-Kal would be getting back up. Takanuva had tried to protect him, to bend the light back around him, but he had moved too quickly. Now he might not move at all.
With a heavy heart and a troubled spirit, he started back.
✴ ✴ ✴
It had taken at least a day of travel by his reckoning, but at last Takanuva arrived in Po-Wahi where he sealed the underground chamber accessing the Kraata cave of the Turaga. He couldn’t figure out how to unleash a wave of solid light as he had before, so he settled for erecting a wall of boulders and stones to block it off.
The moon and stars blanketed the sky when he emerged again on the surface of Mata Nui. The cold gust howled, but the Toa hardly noticed it. His spirit was darkened.
It was by chance that he encountered Pohatu in the desert. When the Toa of Light explained his desire to summon the Toa together, the Toa of Stone was intrigued, but he did not question it. Sending word to the other Toa, he gathered them together in their traditional meeting place.
Some doubted the wisdom of prying the Turaga for their knowledge. Gali and Onua argued that the secrets would be shared in time, when the Turaga were ready to share them. Lewa felt similarly, pointing out that the Turaga had imparted wisdom whenever it had proven pertinent.
But Tahu and Kopaka opposed this. In rare form, they agreed with each other that the time had come for the Turaga to tell them what awaited below. Even Pohatu set aside his easy-going nature and spoke in hardened resolve that the Turaga would have to trust them as they traveled to the land below, just as the Toa trusted the Turaga.
When the time came for Takanuva to voice an opinion, he gazed hard into the fire of the campsite, a fire that he had seen so often before. Over the past months, the veil had lifted from his memories, yet a shroud had descended on his soul.
At length, he spoke.
“I have spent many months restoring my memories of the time before your summoning, Toa,” he said. “When your canisters fell from the heavens, I was shot into the sky and fell to the earth, losing all I remembered of the past. The memories of my life on Mata Nui have returned to me now… in time for the Turaga to tell me I lived a life before I lived on Mata Nui.”
He stood and walked to a tree, leaning back against it helplessly. “I need to know about the world below. All my life I have felt compelled to explore, to seek answers, and to learn about the world. I was not at home in Ta-Koro, and maybe the secrets of the Turaga hold answers.”
Gali stood. Walking over to him, she placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I do not need a mental link to see your unease,” she said softly. “You have seen something… Learned something.”
“I have,” Takanuva said darkly. “But after the Turaga have spoken their peace, I will see what is left for me to tell.”
“You are not the only one who wishes to know more about his past,” Onua piped up. “We know nothing of ours.”
“Perhaps the mystery-secrets of the Turaga are the answer then,” shrugged Lewa.
Onua sighed. “Maybe.”
Pohatu bowed his head. “We will travel to Metru Nui in a matter of weeks. The Turaga must trust us as we have always trusted them. Their knowledge could help us.”
“And their secrets could harm us,” Kopaka added. “We must know what awaits us in the land below.”
Gali sighed. “You are right. Knowing what about the Bohrok or Rahkshi could have let us stop them before they came. And they kept the secrets of the Rahi’s infected masks from us too.”
“Then we are agreed,” Tahu nodded. “I will go to Vakama tomorrow and ask him to tell us of these six Toa he spoke of… we must know the Legends of Metru Nui.”
✴ ✴ ✴
In the deepest realms of Mangaia, a voice drifted as if carried like a leaf on the wind. A voice brimming with malice and hate, mockery and disgust. Gently it drifted down the abyss to the broken body of the Kraata-Kal where it rested… and was heard.
Get up, it said. We both know you’re not dead, though you may wish you were.
The Kraata-Kal stirred.
Your creation in these halls was disgraceful enough. Don’t embarrass us both by also dying here.
With great effort, the mechanoid body sat upright.
“My imaginary friend,” Kraata-Kal croaked. “I’ve missed you too.”
I have a new mission for you, the voice said, ignoring him. Son of Makuta.
Kraata-Kal smiled. “How profitable?”
The voice sounded strained. Profitable enough.
“That doesn’t tell me anything.”
Coming from me, it says everything.
“The Shadowed One always gives me my payment up front.”
You’re lucky to receive any payment at all, the voice snarled. The Shadowed One has fed you power and you have reveled in it.
Kraata-Kal stood up to leave. “I go where I’m wanted… and where I stand to gain the most.”
Wait.
Kraata-Kal stopped.
Your plays are amusing, the voice sighed. I can only guess what it is about the Kal mutagen that makes you thirst for power so. The Bohrok-Kal learned this as well before their defeat. One wonders why you came here today. Driven by ambition and pride as you are. You were looking to win the power of Takanuva as leverage against both me and the Shadowed One, weren’t you?
Kraata-Kal smirked. “Let’s not pretend you don’t keep Toa as pets.”
They know their purpose.
“And I don’t?” Kraata-Kal snapped. “Tell me, maker, what was I meant for? Why was I made possible by the Great Beings? What were you, Miserix, and your brothers really intended to do? You seem pretty peeved that I violated your divine purpose for me, but what would I find if I looked into yours?”
The voice was silent for a moment. Then came a noise that gave Kraata-Kal chills.
Laughter.
I would lie if I said I didn’t miss your prattle. One day you will learn submission like the Rahkshi legions you came from, the voice asserted. But like Takanuva, I will let you win today. Take what you want. Keep the Staff of Darkness and whatever else you want from here. The rest you will gain after my mission for you is fulfilled.
Kraata-Kal folded its arms.
“That being?”
Over our wars with the Dark Hunters, I have heard reports of six of the most power-hungry, most vicious, most savage assassins among their ranks, the voice said coolly. Ones who, upon hearing Makuta is dead, would come running to loot his chamber. I’m told they’re even from the same species. They must come at my signal.
“What do you plan to do with them?”
What do I do with anyone?
“They are vile,” Kraata-Kal said. “Their methods disgust me.”
Then nobody will miss them when they’re gone.
“So you want me to tell them about what’s happened here?”
Yes, the voice rumbled. Send them to me. Like Takua’s exile before them, their arrival here… will ignite the end of all.